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It’s ironic, but my disclosure on the stock I’m about to write about is: I will own it as soon as I can find a non-U.S. broker who can get me stock. The reason it’s hard to get is because it’s an OTC Markets stock, and brokers in Europe tend to throw their arms up in horror if you want to buy some.

But this isn’t a worthless stock pump and dump slithering from some promoter to eviscerate my trading account; this is stock in the market itself, OTC Markets Group (OTCM).

Microcaps, small caps and OTC stocks are the casino for stock speculators everywhere in the world. The small company end of stock markets around the world are the sand-box where private investors love to play. When they win they are genius and when they lose, which is most of the time, they blame it on anything but themselves.

Trading is not investing. Trading is gambling.

Gambling is pretty much illegal in most parts of the world but the gambling instinct is strong. People want to gamble and do. When they can’t go to a casino, play a slot machine or visit a bookie, they play the markets. The stock and forex markets are the outlet for the pent up gambling instinct on a worldwide scale.

In the U.S. this market is the OTC and the Pink Sheets.

This segment has a long and tortuous history going back at least into the 19th century and today it is as popular as ever. This might seem amazing. Haven’t people learned that penny stocks are the short cut to the poorhouse? Of course they have, they know casinos are too, but Las Vegas grows and grows because people want to play for the sensation of it.

As the U.S. markets prosper so does the small cap market, and the microcap end of it is owned by OTC Markets. Our investorshub.com site is a massive community of small cap traders and OTC and Pink sheet stocks drive a lot of the discussions. I call these equities “madcap” stocks and the trading gamblers love them.

I have also just listed our London AIM-listed parent company as an ADR on the OTC market itself, called the OTCQX, so it is fair to say I’m up to speed on this company.

The OTC market is flourishing.

With exchanges massively valued and on the prowl for acquisition, OTC Markets’ current market cap at $120 million is simply too low. It is a sitting duck for any exchange group wanting to hoover up the fat small cap tail of the U.S. market with all its private investor liquidity and broker relationships.

The just bought the Frank Russell Company for $2.7bn to get its hands on the Russell 2000 small cap index and its various appendages. In comparison, to be able to buy the whole U.S. microcap market for a couple of hundred million seems insanely cheap.

OTC Markets is profitable, has a nice cash hoard and even pays a 2% dividend.

So with a bit of luck by the time you read this I’ll have found a broker who can supply an offshore Brit some of that OTC Markets stock, because as sure as Vegas is Vegas, the OTC and its market is going to thrive.